Easiest Website Builders

The use of website builders is the easiest way to create a website today. These systems may complete around 80% of user’s work, ensuring the top notch result. They come with visual editing tools, module sets as well as their own applications and integrations with external services. By using these systems, it’s possible to create impressive websites without any programming skills.

What is the easiest website builder? It is the best combination of ease of use and functionality required to solve a particular task. Ease of use does not imply primitivity, however. It is not about the interface consisting of 2 buttons, one of each is used to publish a website.

The thing is that website builders with visual editors, for example, may function differently, while having the same implication. Some of them make it possible to avail the desired result in a simpler way, while others allow achieving the same goal in a more complicated way.

The prevailing amount of people need business websites, such as promo sites, portfolios, landing pages and online stores that are not quite large in most cases. Blogs are also in demand. Most users are not interested in creating portals and hypermarkets.

That’s why, they are likely to choose between WYSIWYG platforms when searching for the most suitable solutions just because they need services that will make it possible for them to create websites which become popular. Consequently, our major task is to single out a couple of the easiset website builders of this type (and we’ve made it – see overview chart), the features of which will come up to user requirements.

Before we dive deeply into the numerous features of each service, let’s discover, what are the key benefits of using website builders (both for newbies and professionals). Let’s go!

What Makes Website Builders So Easy to Use?

Any out-of-the-box website builder comes with a full set of tools and options to create different types of websites that meet its niche specialization. A user doesn’t have to improve anything here. There is no need to look for extra options, download, code or install anything. You just use the readymade set of tools to avail the expected result. This is the major essence of website builders. They are created to make it possible for ordinary users with zero web creation skills to launch a functional website.

Everything you get in a website builder is already set and ready for the work. This includes hosting, domain name, dashboard with all the required tools, templates, databases etc. You don’t have to understand anything in website structure or its components, but you will still be able to design an appealing classic website, blog, online store or portfolio. You will hardly be able to do the same in CMS, if you lack corresponding skills and experience. Website builders allow doing that with easy way.

Even experienced web developers use website builders to create client websites today. This is not because they are lazy or have poor skills. This is because a client, who gets a website with an understandable and simple dashboard, will be able to administer it on his/her own after a brief tutorial. A user will manage the project without disturbing a web developer.

If a client gets a website created in a complicated CMS with puzzling dashboard options and setup modules, then he/she will definitely face lots of problems. Correspondingly, a web developer will be bothered by dozens of client calls asking for help on a regular basis. No one needs that.

Dashboards of website builders are intuitive. A brief user tutorial is enough to let a client keep working on a project independently. Well, you may have to answer a couple of minor questions afterwards, but that cannot even be compared to the spectrum of problems you may face when entrusting a client with complete development of the project.

It’s also easy to prolong hosting and domain name plans – you just make a one-time yearly payment, click the button in the dashboard and forget about that till the next time. To proceed to another project, you need to provide website login/pass info and get the payment. All done and dusted. Everyone is satisfied with the result.

Creating a project with a website builder is a benefit both for you and your client. This is not to mention time, effort and money economy, which makes the services of a web designer sought after. What’s more, many website builders offer partnership programs that make it possible to get a percentage of other referrals’ expenses. This is a notable bonus CMS don’t have at all. The more clients you have, the higher your passive income becomes. Your profit starts growing, while you are doing the job you like. Can there be anything better than that?

All in all, the result you get when using CMS for a week, can be availed in around 1 day with a website builder. This is the easiest way of making websites today. These services work well when it comes to creating websites that don’t have many pages and complex structure, such as portfolio websites, landing pages, blogs and business websites. In this respect, website builders prevail over the options provided by CMS, which are a better choice for geeks, who focus on personal large projects that are initially created for further monetization.

So, we have discussed the positioning, benefits and spheres of application of website builders. However, there are many of them nowadays and it’s not easy to make a nice choice right from the start. Which one meets your needs most of all? I recommend focusing on two systems that are an ideal choice for newbies willing to create websites we have just talked about. These are Wix and uKit. They are the most convenient in their niche. Let’s briefly characterize each of these systems now.

Wix – The Easiest Free Website Buider

Wix is the most popular website builder in the world. This is the number one solution available in the niche. This fact speaks for itself. Wix is awesome. The developers keep working on it for over 10 years already, trying their best effort to optimize the dashboard to make it intuitive and adhering to the functionality of the system, which also keeps improving. Wix is the most powerful and appealing in its niche. This is the best sample of the WYSIWYG system.

Wix has 2 features that make it stand out from the crowd. These are the templates and the app store. Both features are the best in quality and versatility of choice they offer. You will also find various options that are not available in other website builders, such as billing, email marketing campaigns, a great graphic editor, an option allowing to use button combinations, create developer teams etc.

All in all, Wix works great when it comes to developing websites by creative people, such as musicians, photographers, designers, makeup specialists etc. However, it’s also possible to launch the websites of auto repair shops, furniture manufacturers or construction companies without any particular effort here. The system encourages users to create impressive designs. It has rich template customization options – both general and applicable to separate elements (like sections, images, buttons, blocks etc.). You can change almost anything here, which is highly appreciated by creative people. If you wish, you can create your own website design.

It’s not difficult to use the system at all. Availability of detailed instructions, wizards and a blog won’t leave a newbie confused in case of certain problems. The pricing plans start with $49/year. This is enough to create a promo website, portfolio or a small blog.

To get the most out of Wix features, you’ll need a bit of experience and skills. At the same time, you need one day only to explore all the options of the system. This is how you will be able to learn all the features of the visual editor, such as adding various effects, boxes, videos, online forms, galleries, promo actions, integrating websites with social networks, marketing and entertainment services. Working with Wix is really pleasant and you should definitely try this option.

uKit – The Most Intuitive Website Builder

uKit is, probably, the easiest website builder. Why? That’s simple: it is convenient, functional and affordable at the same time. For $36/year with our promo code (SWB-25) only, you can use it without looking for other alternatives, if the options of the system meet you current web building needs. As of today, uKit may be effectively used to launch promo websites, landing pages, portfolios and online stores.

You can create a suitable website structure for only 30 minutes by using a rich set of widgets. Filling it with content won’t take you longer than the rest of the night. You will be offered to fill out the contact form and provide other required data when trying to access a dashboard. As a result, your website will get personalized design right after the registration.

Template demo content will help you understand what materials you should use to fill the website (by the way, we recommend choosing the design that meets your needs right from the start). Newbies will certainly like this option as well as helpful SEO optimization tips.

All in all, uKit is a user-friendly platform. For all those users, who need more than intuitive interface, the system offers user assistance and a blog, where everyone will find answers to all the questions (if any). However, it’s close to impossible to spoil something here at all. The system is a great start for newbies, who don’t have any understanding of the web building process in general.

Nice responsive templates, a simple and easy to manage online store, intuitive dashboard, understandable settings of elements and affordability make uKit one of the easiest website builders to create business websites. If this is really what you need, don’t hesitate to use this system.

Custom Web Design vs Website Builders: The Pros and Cons

I’m often asked what option is better: custom web design or website builders. As you can see from my blog, I’m an avid site builders’ advocate. However, I’m also a big WordPress fan and I equally adore custom web design. I believe that none of the options is inferior to another. Each is good, especially when used wisely. And each may have its downsides. So, in this post I’m going to discuss the pros and cons of both. I hope this article will help you decide what direction you need to take.

Needs

Website builders: Modern site builders are very flexible, and some can even compete with WordPress and other powerhouses in the web building/publishing industry. Surely, building a feature-rich website for a large-scale business offering sophisticated, unique user experiences needs and requires absolute professionalism.

DIY website builders aren’t the best option in this case. However, they can be effectively used for creating basic business sites, web stores, blogs, online portfolios, real estate and restaurant websites. Check out the compilation of websites built with Wix to see the variety of website types site makers can support.

Custom design: Custom design wins when it comes to complex websites with user profiles, automatic uploads and sophisticated, interactive features. These sites require professional expertise and often – ongoing support.

Budget

Website builders: Website builders are affordable, and some – ridiculously affordable. Most of them (99%) you can try free of charge – no commitment, no contracts and no credit card details. So, you risk nothing but your time and effort.

Speaking about pricing policies, based on my experience I would group all site builders into two categories: subscription-based and license-based. Weebly for example, belongs to the former camp and thus charges monthly fee ($0-$25 including hosting). While MotoCMS website builder belongs to the latter camp: it sells templates (which are almost ready websites) at a fixed price and lets users host their websites anywhere on the web without monthly fees.

Custom design: Custom design is definitely pricier. The same project (with the same list of requirements) can cost for instance $1,000 – $5,000 depending on the agency. You won’t find fixed prices in the manual design segment as many professionals offer their services at pay-per-hour basis.

Time

Website builders: Undoubtedly, they are faster. No doubt about that. It will take you less than an hour to create a basic ‘text and picture’ website with one of them. Since most are based on drag-and-drop editing principle, all you need is just to point and click, drag and drop.

Because there will be no middlemen, you’ll be able to publish your site faster and with less effort: there will be no need to review and approve different versions of the design and wait for someone to upload your content. You’ll be in charge of everything. When I tested Wix it took me 25 minutes to publish my website (5-7 minutes I was selecting a template :)). The same is about Weebly: thanks to their intuitive interface one can design a website, fill it in with unique content and even connect a custom domain within one hour.

Custom design: Manual design may require inordinate amount of time to bring about your ideas. At first, you’ll have to write down all your requirements and form a technical assignment. Be ready to spend long hours discussing these requirements with your contractor, receiving, approving/disapproving and sending back different versions of the most various website elements (background, buttons, favicons and alike).

Bottom Line

Website builders prevail over CMS when it comes to the simplicity of work. You can ultimately focus on web design customization and filling your site with content when using these systems. There is nothing to distract you here – all technically complex stages of website creation are left far beyond the attention of a user.

Regardless of your occupation, you can create a website with Wix or uKit. You just need to be an active PC user to do that. You won’t need any extra skills, apart from those an ordinary user needs when working on a computer. Website builders come with detailed user info sections providing all the required info on the features of the system and their applications. However, people don’t use them quite often, because the dashboards are generally intuitive and understandable.

Another argument to use website builders is their affordability. You get hosting, domain name and convenient web design environment for a limited cost. If you decided to buy them separately, you would pay much more for that. This is not to mention the management of the CMS in combination with hosting. It’s also more convenient to develop client websites, getting the revenue from the partnership programs granted by the system. As soon as the project is completed, you just provide a client with the dashboard logo/pass, give brief instructions and that’s it. You are done with the task.

I have reviewed two website builders that are the best in their class. They are simple, functional and easy to use. I definitely recommend exploring the benefits of website builders with them. Try the options of these platforms to avail positive experience.